Nantes 109 



({612 los.) with no rent for the first year. It contains 60 beds 

 for masters, and 25 stalls for horses. Some of the apartments 

 o; two rooms, very neat, are 6 livres a day ; one good 3 livres, but 

 for merchants 5 livres per diem for dinner, supper, wine, and 

 chamber, and 35 sous for his horse. It is, without comparison, 

 tlie first inn I have seen in France, and very cheap. It is in a 

 snail square close to the theatre, as convenient for pleasure or 

 trade as the votaries of either can wish. The theatre cost 

 450,000 livres and lets to the comedians at 17,000 livres a year; 

 it holds, when full. 120 louis d'or. The land the inn stands on 

 was bought at 9 livres a foot : in some parts of the city it sells as 

 high as 15 livres. This value of the ground induces them to 

 build so high as to be destructive of beauty. The quay has 

 nothing remarkable; the river is choked with islands, but at the 

 furthest part next to the sea is a large range of houses regularly 

 fronted. An institution common in the great commercial towns 

 of France, but particularly flourishing in Nantes, is a chambre de 

 lecture, or what we should call a book-club, that does not divide 

 its books, but forms a library. There are three rooms, one for 

 reading, another for conversation, and the third is the library; 

 good fires in winter are provided, and wax candles. Messrs. 

 Epivent had the goodness to attend m.e in a water expedition, to 

 view the establishment of Mr. Wilkinson, for boring cannon, in 

 an island in the Loire below Nantes. Until that well-known 

 English manufacturer arrived the French knew nothing of the 

 art of casting cannon solid and then boring them. Mr. Wilkin- 

 son's machinery, for boring four cannons, is now at work, moved 

 by tide wheels; but they have erected a steam engine, with a 

 new apparatus for boring seven more; M. de la Motte, who has 

 the direction of the whole, showed us also a model of this engine, 

 about six feet long, five high, and four or five broad ; which he 

 worked for us, by making a small fire under the boiler that is not 

 bigger than a large tea-kettle; one of the best machines for a 

 travelling philosopher that I have seen. Nantes is as enflatnnie 

 in the cause of liberty as any town in France can be; the con- 

 versations I witnessed here prove how great a change is effected 

 in the minds of the French, nor do I believe it will be possible 

 for the present government to last half a century longer unless 

 the clearest and most decided talents are at the helm. The 

 American revolution has laid the foundation of another in 

 France, if government does not take care of itself.^ The 23rd 

 ' It wanted no great spirit of prophecy to foretel this; but latter events 

 have shovra that I was very wide of the mark when I talked of fifty years. 

 — Author's note. 



